THE END. Here’s the whole crew—Rex, Sophie, Jake, Jenna, Aaron, Meg, Tiffany, Sheilla, David, Trish, Kathy & Carmen. And what a group it’s been, willing to undertake any task, and with great cheer. We mixed concrete, toted blocks and then laid them, dug the septic tank, poured the floors and raised the roof. By the time the group left on Saturday the Chicas’ house was all but done.

Sheilla & I left a day early, so we missed the joy of seeing the house completed. But we had a great time. I noticed on the plane that my fingernails were dirty—something that I don’t get the chance to experience often enough. I carry these dirty nails with pride. It seems like we were gone for well more than a week, but time behaves strangely when it’s overfilled—sometimes it charges forward and seems to disappear, and other times, like this week, it takes a steadier pace.

I’m grateful to be involved with something that provides people with opportunity to enjoy the kind of week we had. Living life is a significant undertaking, and we too often get so distracted by the business of living that we lose touch with what life is all about. The simple joys of working hard in a noble effort, doing a little good and being in the company of saints are the joys we should all aspire to. The world would be a better place if more people put aside their differences for a while and built a house together!

DAY 5—We try to make time during our work camps for the volunteers to experience the local culture. Today was our day, and a great day it was. We left La Libertad at 10:00 after paying the phone bill, finding the post office and buying $62 worth of diesel. The trip from La Libertad to San Salvador is a hike—I’d guess that you gain about 2000 feet in elevation in 35 kilometers. We’re driving a Kia Pregio, which is a nice piece of machinery. Sheilla and I drove it up to San Salvador earlier in the week and zipped up the mountain. With nine passengers the going was a little slower today, and we were one of those vehicles that the rest of us are generally irritated with—crawling up the inclines and then speeding on the downhill to get enough oomph to make the next climb.

We made it to San Salvador without causing too much grief, skirted the city, and header northwest towards Ahuachapan, a 100 kilometer trip. There’s an orphanage there that Jeff Cardwell and DJ Bakken introduced me to a couple of years ago, and I visited it on every trip since. It’s home to 50 girls, ages 2 to 13, who for a variety of reasons have no other place to live. Given the inherent sadness of such a place it’s really very pleasant. It’s run by nuns who show the girls great love and try to give them a leg up in life by teaching them sewing, embroidery, knitting and baking. A good friend of our in Colorado Springs, Kathy Read, has a stitchery and stamping business and always sends a suitcase load of supplies for the girls’ skills training. This trip we also brought money collected from a number of friends to help them rebuild their cistern, which was damaged in last summer’s storms and has left them without a steady supply of water. One of the donors is the 8 year old granddaughter of Fuller Center Board member Marlene Muse, who wanted to give a meaningful gift to someone in need for her birthday.

Our time at the orphanage was golden. The Ascension folks romped and played with the girls and took hundreds of photos, each of which had to be closely inspected. How they’ve every learned about the marvels of digital photography is beyond me. Then the girls sang us a couple of songs and we had to take our leave. It’s a hard place to say goodbye to.

We then drove to Chalchuapa to visit the Tazumal pyramid. This is a structure that was built and rebuilt over the centuries with influences from the Olmeca, the Maya and the Tolteca peoples. Amazingly it wasn’t discovered until 1942, and a good deal of work has been done since then to restore it. It was a fascinating stop and worth the visit.

We stopped at an artisans’ market in San Salvador on our way through town and everyone picked up a treasure or two. Then on to Mr. Donut where, despite the name, we had a true Salvadoran repast. Fuller Center friends Maria and Mario Cruz joined us there to talk about the future of The Fuller Center in El Salvador.

Tomorrow Sheilla & I leave for home. It’s been a wonderful week of memory making. We’ll miss the people and the places and look forward to our next visit with fond anticipation.

DAY 4—It appears that the blog is a little unforgiving when it comes to assigning dates, so Tuesday’s message, which couldn’t get posted until Wednesday carries Wednesday’s date, the Wednesday’s, which is being posted today will have Thursday’s date. Inconsequential in the eternal scheme of things, but it just seemed like an explanation was in order.

We had another great day at the worksite today, Wednesday. We got the gable ends done and purlins painted so the roof can go up on Thursday. We also dug out the pits for the septic tank and settling pond, two holes both seven feet deep. I say we, but it was actually the kids that got that work done. Sheilla and I realized that we are the true elders on this site, and even though that distinction doesn’t seem to carry a lot of weight, we used it to keep ourselves above ground.

There’s a good spirit with this work camp. The Ascension folks and our new friends Jake and Sophie have been real troopers, taking on any task with cheer. The only times people have been edgy is when they didn’t an assignment—something that gets quickly remedied. The Chicas family has been hard after it as well, along with their extended family which appears to be quite extensive. A couple of the team members know a word or two of Spanish and Jake & Sophie are fluent, so we’ve been able to communicate well. We took everyone in to San Luis Talpa for lunch at this great little buffet. Sheilla and I had rice, beans, chiles rellenos, tortillas and a drink for $3 each—not a bad deal.

We had a pleasant evening of surf and sand and another gourmet meal. The surf here is quite good I’m told by those who know about such things. It’s a little brutal for the uninitiated, though, and I worry about the kids, but they seem to be up to the challenge and we haven’t lost anyone yet. I’m sure this will be of great comfort to any parents who my be checking these postings out.

Tomorrow is a rest day. We’re going up to Ahuachapan to visit an orphanage I’ve come to know. There are some pyramids along the way so we’ll have chance to play tourist and rest up a bit for Friday, which will be a big day.

DAY 3—Today we worked, and it felt great. We’re between projects here. We had to step back from the work we’d started earlier at Saint Joe’s and don’t have all of the permits to start work yet at the new site at La Moras de Sta. Clara. We have a crack construction crew down here and wanted to keep them busy. As we’ve gotten to know them all better we’ve learned that most of them live in houses that qualify them for our program. So during our hiatus between initiatives we’ve been doing some Greater Blessing work on their houses. Charity, they say, begins at home, so we’re taking care of our own while we wait for the paperwork to take care of others.

This week we’re working on the house of our superintendent, Pedro Chicas. Pedro and his wife Bacilia have three kids and, Josue (11), Melissa (9) and Alexi (2) They live in a one room block house with few facilities, so we’re adding on a couple of rooms and an indoor bath. Today we mixed mortar, laid blocks, cut and shaped rebar and made a big dent in the project. The masons were impressed, if not by our skills by our willingness to do whatever had to be done. It was a great day of work—not too hot, good company, fruitful work and a great spirit. For those of us who spend our time in administrative efforts, as important as those efforts might be, it was a great blessing to end the day with dirty hands and a sweat stained brow.

We had another wonderful dinner thanks to Carmen and Yolanda, but had a delayed start because a huge sea turtle had come ashore to lay eggs and we had to check it out. Some local folks were protecting her so we couldn’t get too close. They said that once the eggs were laid we could return, so we ate and then rushed back to watch the new mama head back to sea. Apparently sea turtles aren’t burdened with maternal instincts. By all appearances her parenting duties were done. It was a great thing to be a part of though.

Everyone seems to be acclimated and un-jet-lagged, so spirits are running high. Tomorrow we should get the floors in and the rest of the walls raised. If the roof gets put on Thursday we’ll be close to done. What a ministry—house by house, one house at a time we are able to be a part of a life changing experience, not just for the family that will live in the house, but for the good souls who give of their time and talents to make it possible. What a blessing.

DAY 2—More planning today. We did actually have some meetings, but in the true spirit of committee work, not a lot of actual work got done. The Ascension group arrived at noon. They’d been traveling since 9:00 last night, so they were a little bushed. A dip in the sea and a run down the shore brought renewed energy to the under 30 set. The rest of us got tired just watching. There are six in their group, Tiffany Malcom, Rex & Meg Rudy, Aaron Holt, Jenna Dolata and Kathy Mannerberg. We’ve been joined by a couple of new friends, Jake & Sophie, who have been touring Central America by volunteering from place to place.

We knew that the group would be a little tuckered out from their travels, so our goal was to get them acclimated, fed and rested. We accomplished all of that so we can count the day a success. Special mention needs to be made of the feeding part—our program assistant, Carmen Gallardo, happens to be a professional chef and she whipped us up a paella to die for. Given the accommodations, the views and the food this is a work camp experience that will be hard to top! Tomorrow we get to work.

DAY ONE- GETTING READY—We’re in El Salvador now. Sheilla & I came in a day ahead of the Ascension group. It was a hard day in paradise—getting groceries, eating seafood, checking out the Pacific to make sure it was up to par. We’re pretty much exhausted. The photo is of me hard at work in a planning session for next fall.

This is a great place for work camps and we hope to host many of them. The people are incredibly warm and friendly, the countryside is lush, and it’s exotic enough to offer a true international experience. Tomorrow we may do some actual work. But then again, we may just have to do a little more planning.

In the “it’s an amazing world” category I just got an email from Joe O’Brien of The Fuller Center- Brazzaville. (These communications marvels continue to amaze those of us who grew up with dial telephones.) He wrote to say that the group from Engineering Ministries International (eMi) had arrived to start work on planning the new village we are going to build at Makana. eMi is a great organization that solves engineering problems for other nonprofits around the world. We are delighted to have them with us in the Republic of the Congo. The photo shows the eMi group at their first meeting with village leaders.

Time now to rest from my labors. The only problem with working in places like this is that it’s hard to tell if you’re really working!

THE GREAT EL SALVADOR WORK CAMP ADVENTURE

My wife Sheilla and I are heading to El Salvador on a Fuller Center work camp. In my many years in this work I have led a good number of major building events and I’ve welcomed hundreds of work campers to building sites, but I’ve never been on a work camp as a volunteer. Until now. Well… almost. As I’m an administrator I’ll have to spend a fair amount of time administrating. The Millard & Linda Fuller Build will be held in El Salvador the week of November 17. We’ll build 16 houses in a week, so there’s a good deal of preparation to be done.

Anyway, we’re off to El Salvador where we’ll spend Spring Break building with a group from Ascension Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs. Getting from the Springs to San Salvador is a little tricky—the cheapest flights seem to have schedules that require you to spend the night either in the Denver airport or in Atlanta. We opted for Atlanta, so here we are, nestling into our motel room, and getting excited about the week ahead.

We’ll get to San Salvador at noon tomorrow, Easter Sunday. Our project director, Trish Stoops, will pick us up for the 20 minute drive to the Fuller Center compound at Las Flores, located right on the Pacific seashore. Las Flores is close to the airport as well as our building site and just a half hour from San Salvador, making it an ideal hub for our activities.

I’ll keep jotting notes about this adventure and posting them through the week to the extent our internet access at Las Flores allows. We’re looking forward to a great adventure.

Starting Over in Nepal

I'm happy to announce that work has begun again in Nepal. The first 12 foundations are being laid in the village of New Kankad. The houses are being built for the Rana Tharu people whose present village sits low and is subject to annual flooding. We are building on higher ground!

Nepal was home to The Fuller Center’s first international initiative, but one that was cut short due to civil unrest. Since the

closure of that first project our partners in Nepal have been working to develop a new building site, and work is now beginning there. Special thanks are due to Samuel Tamang and B.L. Shrestha for their perseverance in the face of tremendous obstacles.

Kankad is located in the far west of the country, and while it was the site of rebel activity during the insurgency, is now at peace. We are building with the Rana Tharu, an industrious people who make their living from the land. They are quite poor, coming from an ancient system of bonded labor. One of the remarkable features of their village is its cleanliness. I was told that Tharu women spend fully half their time cleaning house, scrubbing the mud plastered walls and floors. The houses will be a little larger than we were going to build in the Terai—Rana Tharu families live in multi-generational homes and require a little more space.

The name Kankad means “sand” in Tharu and their village is located on the sandy banks of a river that regularly rises to flood the homes. Because of this the government is seeking to relocate the village. With the help of the Rural Housing Company, a public/private agency that controls a great deal of land throughout the country, an alternative site, on higher ground, was secured near to the existing village. The new village will have 63 homes and it is expected that the first 12 will be completed before the rainy season begins in early summer. The houses are being built using stabilized mud brick, which the homeowners are manufacturing on site. Our partners in the project are the Shelter and Local Technology Development Center and the Rural Housing Company. The work is overseen by the Fuller Center’s country director, Samuel Tamang.

Returned from my African travels - Februrary 13, 2008

Greetings from cool, colorful Colorado! I am safely returned from my African travels. Thanks to all for your prayers and support. It was a great trip and I have pictures to share and stories to tell.

As you might imagine I have more than a few emails awaiting me. I'll get to them as quickly as possible, but if you have something urgent please send a follow-up so I can get to it sooner.

The Fuller Center is on the move in Africa. We held a community meeting in Makana, Rep of Congo, and just about the entire village showed up. We're working on verifying land ownership there, and will begin building soon. We laid the cornerstone for the first house in Bolomba, DRC. The crowds there were overwhelming-- of course it helped that the Vice Governor of Equator Province made the trip with us. Building there is now underway. Nigeria continues to flower. We dedicated 10 new homes and the Board of Directors of TFH-Nigeria held a word day on site. There's some work to be done yet in Ghana, but we could have a project there later this year. And an old friend from Habitat days, Isabel Johnston, flew to Abuja from Sierra Leone specifically to meet with me about starting a project there.

Thanks again for your support. This was a difficult trip-- travel in Africa is a challenging undertaking. But everything went well and I'm grateful to be home.

David

Returned from the jungle (from Kinshasa) - February 2, 2008

Greetings from Kinshasa. I am safely returned from the jungle-- had a great trip to Bolomba. The Vice Governor of Equator Province lent us his boat and joined us for the trip. He is fascinated with our self-help approach, especially now that there is some evidence that it works. His participation took the trip to a whole new level! After two days of being serenaded around by a drum and fife corps the chaos of Kinshasa seems kind of peaceful. Our governors would be jealous is they saw the kind of reception their counterparts are given over here.

We laid the cornerstone for the first house, and cut the ribbon on the new village. I couldn't count the crowd, but there were hundreds of folks there. Our efforts are echoing throughout the province, and we've barely gotten started. Here we are, working in a place so remote that there is no power, no email, no cell phones and yet our simple approach has caught fire. This is exciting stuff.

I'll be in Kinshasa over the weekend-- I speak Sunday at the International Church-- see if we can generate some local support. Monday I leave early for Nigeria where I'll spend a few days before going on to Ghana and then, the best part of any trip, coming home.

Thanks for all of your kind messages of support. I am safe and well protected. This has been a complicated trip with much worked out on the fly, but such is life in Africa. People here send warm greetings to their new American friends at The Fuller Center.

Yours in continuing-- and ever growing-- faith,
David

We are on the move in Africa (Kinshasa) - January 28, 2008

Just a quick update-- things are going very well here in Brazzaville. We had a meeting yesterday with most all of Makana II village showing up-- they are excited and motivated. We've managed to get house costs in line and could see work starting here soon. The next step is to get the land tenure issues settled so we know who really owns what, but then work can begin. We will eliminate poverty housing in Makana Village.

I leave tomorrow (Tues) for Mbandaka and then on to Bolomba. I just learned that the Governor of Equator Province will be making the trip with us-- he is very interested in what we're about.

I'll be pretty much out of touch until I return to Kinshasa next Saturday. Say hey to everyone. We are on the move in Africa.

David